Although the older generation is adapting to new technologies, Generation Z has developed a fixation for vintage items such as disposable cameras, low-rise pants and skirts, and flip phones released in the 1990s.
These basic, light and small phones, which cost around $20 at Amazon or Walmart, are the protagonists of videos on TikTok in which young people are seen opening the boxes and excitedly unpacking the devices just as teenagers did 30 years ago. behind.
There are also tutorials on how to take pictures with the camera on these foldable phones. Young people claim on social networks that they buy these cell phones to disconnect as much as possible from the world, since they have low signal and little internet.
“I’m the one from the group’s flip phone revolution. Maybe I can write the theme song, ”Camila Cabello assured in a tweet posted last week in which she uploaded a photo posing with a TCL flip phone.
While actress Dove Cameron, trained at Disney, said in an interview in November that she had bought a flip phone because spending too much time on her cell phone looking at social networks was “very bad” for her.
Foldable phones are an escape for Gen-Z
Sammy Palazzolo, an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, told CNN that he has a new activity with his friends. Before going to a party, they dress up by listening to music on their smartphones, but when they go out they take their flip phones with them.
Throughout the night they contact each other through their low-end cell phones and take photos with outdated cameras.
He alleged that before changing the phone, he realized how night outings ended in complaints and crying over unwanted posts on social networks.
With this practice, he believes that “it eliminates all the bad things of the university and brings all the good things of a phone like connecting with people and taking photos and videos.”
“I think more and more people are going to go out with flip phones just because it’s so fun, nostalgic and, honestly, a vibe,” Reagan Boeder, another 18-year-old, told the outlet.
A market that could take off
International Data Corporation, a company that examines consumer markets by devices, applications, networks and services, reported in 2022 that it expects the foldable phone market to reach $29 billion by 2025 with annual growth of 70%.
In 2022, Samsung released more than 10 million units of foldable smart phones, which represented more than 88% of the global market for these devices.
But unlike the phones you can get at Walmart for $20, a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 is $1,799.99 and the Galaxy Z Flip4 is $999,999.
“Samsung chose to bet on its folding smartphones; a decision it has made is way ahead of its rivals in the number and sales of these phones,” Zaker Li, principal analyst for Omdia’s mobile team, told CNN.
